There exists a constant demand for improved performance of lubricating oil compositions. Nowhere does this appear to be more true than in the formulation of automatic transmission fluids, torque fluids and the like. One such demand and concern, illustratively, is the development of novel lubricity compositions incorporating significant friction reducing properties in addition to the anit-corrosion and anti-oxidant characteristics normally known to inhere, for example, in the usual short and branched chain dialkyl, dialkylphenoxy, and dialkylphenoxyalkyl dithiophosphates in present use, which, indeed, while they may be innocuous in reducing friction are known often to actually impart a profrictional effect to the lubricant compositions in which they are incorporated.
An automatic transmission is a complex hydraulic mechanism which incorporates the functions of a torque converter, wet clutches and planetary gearing in a relatively sealed unit. As the wet clutch plates engage and their relative velocities decrease to 0, a substantial reduction in the coefficient of friction is necessary to obtain a smooth lock-up of the clutch plates.
If compositions could be secured incorporating, illustratively, the anti-corrosion and anti-wear properties of the foregoing conventional phosphates minimizing, or eliminating, the use of these compounds in automatic transmission fluids and the like, but contributing simultaneously and economically to the requisite reduction in the coefficient of friction of the clutch face surfaces, the result would represent a significant advance in the state of the art.